Daily Archives: 13 August 2009

In Irving Wallace‘s 1982 thriller The Almighty, the protagonist Edward Armstead inherits from his father a newspaper called the New York Record (and his mistress). But the former comes with a rider: the Record will become his if and only if he can overtake the circulation of the New York Times in a certain timeframe.

To achieve that objective, Armstead sets about manufacturing news and events over which he has proprietory control. He hires a gang to kick off unlikely accidents and assassinations to cover which he has presciently despatched two reporters well in advance.

But even before their stories can reach New York, the paper would have already carried stories under the fictitious byline “Mark Bradshaw“. Thus, The Inheritor overtakes NYT and secures his inheritance. But the scam is uncovered when he seeks to bump off the Pope.

Wallace Souza says he is the target of his rivals’ smears. He remains free because of immunity he enjoys as a legislator but surely life imitates art?

***

Irving Wallace’s story was successfully adapted into a Malayalam film starring Mammootty called New Delhi, which was later remade in several Indian languages (starring Jeetendra in Hindi, Ambarish in Kannada, and so on).